Date night....Indian style!

So it's been a while since I did this dating thing!  I am not sure if there are rules that govern this, e.g. a date has to take place on a weekend, or that it follows a certain routine...drinks, dinner, movie, or whatever.  So it's a Tuesday night and I guess we're celebrating the fact that Monday has been dealt with, work was done and the gym session undertaken with a fair amount of vigour;  Tuesday has been tackled and a productive day was had.  We found ourselves alone....our two sons both out for the night.  What to do?  

Well now, there is this Indian restaurant in town called Moksh that has a pretty good reputation.  No, actually, it has a great reputation and we've been wanting to sample this infamous North Indian cuisine for some time.  I booked a table for two and looked forward to the dinner date all day!  I Whatsapped the husband and asked him to put the bottle of Poker Hill Frizzante in the fridge to chill as I thought it would be absolutely awesome with curry.  He replied saying that he had done that already!  I was really impressed...that was until I discovered there was no Frizzante in our fridge.  Puzzled I inquired as to why he said he already put it in the fridge...and with spell checker and a bit of misunderstanding, he thought I'd wanted him to put the chicken back in the fridge that we'd taken out the freezer for supper.  Bwahahaha!!!  From now on I can bet that chicken will be known as Frizzante ..one of those quirky things that happen in our household! 

Interesting Chair

Candle Light

We arrived at Moksh on time only to find they had no record of my booking!  Fortunately they could accommodate us anyway and we were shown to a table in the corner.  The decor is quite dark and the chairs unusual but comfortable.  The lighting is extremely dim and thus the menu is near impossible to read!  By shifting the romantic little tea-light candle around on the table, we were able to decipher the menu.  Lamb Rogan Josh and Chicken Madras was ordered with sides of garlic naan bread and lacha paratha, along with riata.  The curry was ordered "medium" on the heat scale.  We got a big bowl of ice to chill our lukewarm Frizzante!  

While we awaited our food, we were given a foil-lined basket with papadums to nibble on.  These were crispy and flavoured with cumin seeds.  The restaurant was buzzing with almost all the tables full of happy, eating, drinking humans.  

Our food arrived.  Wow!  What a spread!  With our order we also received a bowl of complimentary rice.  The food was excellent - with just the right amount of "heat" and incredibly tasty.  All the flavours blending beautifully and I must say, the Frizzante was an excellent choice with the curry.  We had no starters and no dessert - there was just no space!  

What a lovely date night!  Great food and even better company!  If you're ever in Somerset West, and North Indian cuisine is your thing, you really need to visit Moksh in Victoria Street.  

What is this romance thing they speak of?

So, I ask you, what is romance?  Is it a girly thing?  Is it something that only certain guys know of? Is it part of ones personality?  Perhaps it is something that is only required during those crazy days of new love...you know those days of butterflies in the tummy, shaky hands and silly smiles...the days before the "M" word....eish....marriage!! 

Now let me tell you that I am Gemini.  I'm telling you this as perhaps some sort of excuse as to why I have these two opposites in my personality.   There is that totally left-brained, logical part of me that says romance schmomance, and then there is that eccentric, creative side that is pathetically romantic.  I have always told people that my husband "isn't the romantic type"  and "I knew this before I married him" and various other excuses!  I've always been the one to organise surprise nights away - which believe me takes a lot of effort when you have two small kids and a full time job - dinner dates, weekends away, special anniversary dates, birthday surprises, etc, etc.  I eventually got to a point where I just didn't really do this anymore.  I figured that if it was okay for him to be an "unromantic" then it was okay for me too.  

After 25.5 years of marriage, I suggested that perhaps we should turn this wheel and go back to the beginning and start dating again.  Well, I was so pleasantly surprised!  I've been taken on dates, and I've even had a beautiful red rose delivered to me at work.  When I explained to a friend that this was huge because my husband was "not a romantic", he said that that was utter nonsense.  He said that being a romantic is simply a matter of choice.  It's choosing to put in some effort and reaping the rewards of course!  Well, that just inspired me to write this blog entry because that is truly what being romantic is....it's a conscious choice.